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Talking About the Internet Blackout, By the Numbers

When the Internet is blacked out, it does not stand still, as data from participating websites, the major social networking sites and search data indicates the wide online reach of yesterday' day of action against SOPA and PIPA.

During the blackout: More than 12,000 people commented on the Wikimedia Foundation's blog post announcing the blackout. A breathtaking majority supported the blackout. More than 162 million saw the Wikipedia blackout page. More than eight million looked up their elected representatives' contact information via the Wikipedia tool. Anti-SOPA and PIPA topics began trending globally on Twitter immediately after the blackout began. Hashtags included #factswithoutwikipedia, #SOPAstrike, and #wikipediablackout. At one point, #wikipediablackout constituted 1% of all tweets, and SOPA accounted for a quarter-million tweets hourly during the blackout.A quick search of "SOPA blackout" on Google News produced more than 8,000 links as of this writing.